Hybridising a pickup truck presents engineering challenges because the powertrain must reduce fuel consumption and emissions while maintaining towing capability and payload. FEV North America explored this challenge using a four-wheel-drive Ford F-150 platform, aiming to evaluate hybrid powertrain architectures without relying on multiple physical prototypes.
To achieve this, FEV used Gamma Technologies’ GT-SUITE, a system-level simulation platform, to build and validate a baseline vehicle model before developing and assessing five hybrid architectures, including parallel, dual-motor and series configurations with different motor locations and battery chemistries. Within GT-SUITE, tailored energy management strategies were applied for each configuration, while the platform’s built-in optimisation tools were used to size components such as battery capacity, motor torque and gearing, balancing fuel economy, added vehicle weight and added cost. The study illustrates how system-level simulation can support informed hybrid powertrain design decisions by enabling architecture trade-off evaluations before hardware development.
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